Pages

Monday, November 5, 2012

When Copper Suns Fall Blog Tour + Indie Author of the Month

Welcome to Reader Girls. Today we host the When Copper Suns Fall Blog Tour. We are also introducing a new feature we're calling Author of the Month (one indie, one traditionally published). Our Indie Author of the Month is KaSonndra Leigh. In conjunction with her Sizzling PR Blog Tours for three of her novels, we will be featuring the author and her books every Monday in November. This first Monday's focus is on When Copper Suns Fall, Book One of The Lost Immortals YA series. Readers have an excerpt to sample, an interview with main character, Chela, and a giveaway to win an autographed copy of When Copper Suns Fall. Our review of this book can be found here. Every day this week we will feature an interview with characters from this series. Tomorrow we feature Seth.

When Copper Suns Fall (The Lost Immortals, Book #1) by KaSonndra Leigh

It has been fifty-five years since the angels of the Apocalyptic War attempted to wipe out humanity. Now a new nation has been built where alchemy is forbidden, and angels fear for their lives as they hide among the mortals.

The city’s leaders share one view on the ancestors of angels: shoot first, no questions.

When her twin brother falls into a strange coma, sixteen-year-old Chela Prizeon vows to discover her role among these exiles, the royal angels known as the Lost Immortals.

Chela’s only hope lies with the mysterious, but infuriating leader of a rebel group. But can she trust this boy, someone who can control her dreams and her heart.

Escape into a world filled with celestial creatures, fascinating villainy, high-stake choices, and forbidden romance.

Readers can take a visual tour of the world inside the Lost Immortalshere

Excerpt:

Forcing my eyes open, I found myself outside the Shack. I was standing in Faris’s arms, my head against his chest, my fingers entwined in his black vest. It was a shiny, smooth fabric that felt like silk. Something nobody had worn outside of ceremonies since before the Tidal Years. This boy was no common citizen.

His earthy-sweet smell was different, intoxicating. He had saved me from whatever just happened back in the Shack. I didn’t expect to be rescued. I expected to be slaughtered or tortured, or something. So what brought on the change? We stood among the crowd fleeing down the hillside. He lifted my chin, stared in my eyes. But this wasn’t some dumb player’s move. No, a mysterious thing stirred behind his silvery-gray eyes.

“Feel better, now?” he asked. I nodded.

“Thanks for helping me,” I said, still fighting a light head. Still afraid the dreaded black blobs lingered somewhere around us. Somewhat ashamed I’d spoken so horribly to him moments ago.

“You probably shouldn’t do that,” he said.

“Do what?”

“Thank me.”

“Why? Because I caught you and your friends using alchemy? That’s what your kind does, right?” I said, feeling a strange mix of excitement and fear. Until this day, I’d always believed there weren’t any other angel-bloods left besides Micah and me. I wanted to believe that someday I’d find at least one other person like us, that we weren’t alone in a world that hates my kind. And now the thing representing my hopes and fears and everything I dreamt of coming true stood here with me.

“Tell me it’s not true. I need to hear you say it,” I whispered.

His left eye ticked. The girl in the hoodie had called him a shadow walker, a nickname for the Caducean demon slayers. Could it be possible? Father told me Caduceans were mythical creatures—descendants of angels from a time long gone. Yet, here I stood with a boy who didn’t deny my claim.

Around us, fewer people were leaving the club. They paid no attention to the two idiots standing and staring at each other. Had Jalen and Alexa gotten out? They were taking forever to reach me.

Did I really want them to find me?

“The Judges will call on me now. They’ll make me a witness against you. I’m sorry, but I already have too many problems. So I—I have to tell the truth,” I said.

“That won’t be a problem.” Faris smiled, a catchy one that lit his face up. I couldn’t decide whether it was angelic or downright wicked. “You won’t remember me, or any of this in a minute.”

“Really? How do you figure that?” I asked, heart racing.

“Because my gift to you…” He moved his face closer to mine, pulling me into whatever was happening in his head. “My gift is to remove memories that cause you pain.”

“Okay, um, right.” Had I lost my mind? It probably wouldn’t have hurt to scream.

He held my gaze, locking me into something I couldn’t explain. Soon, a tear puckered up in his left eye, and slid down his cheek where it stopped on his top lip. Then he blinked, snapping us out of whatever place he’d taken us to, and glanced behind my head. “Here comes your dark knight,” he said, easing his arms away from me.

He strolled off into the last group of stragglers hanging around the Shack. How did he know my nickname for Jalen?

I wiped away a tear rolling down my right cheek. A strange haze crept into my mind as if invisible fingers were shuffling through my memories.

with Chela Prizeon of The Lost Immortals

Chela Prizeon Bio My name is Chela Prizeon. I’m sixteen-years-old and I live in Castle Hayne, the official name for Hill Borough #1. I have a twin brother, Micah, and two best friends, Jalen and Alexa. I live 55 years into the future. My life is…strange. The city leaders decide who we date, who we kiss. Eventually, they’ll decide who I’ll marry too. My brother is in a coma. He has been that way for almost a year. I will find out what really happened to him. I know the fallen ones had something to do with it. And I intend to find out why.

Character Interview: 1. Welcome Chela. For those readers who are not familiar with your story, can you give us a little background about yourself? Thank you. I’m so excited to be here. And I love your name, btw. It’s so cool. Okay, now the background stuff. Well, um I’m sixteen. But I’ll turn seventeen on October 21st. I’m pretty average, I guess. I have two best best friends: a girl named Alexa and a guy named Jalen. We call ourselves the Bermuda Threes. I go to a third-tier school called Ashley George. It’s kind of like what you would call high school. But I won’t get the chance to go this year because I’ve been assigned to Minders Camp. That’s where kids who get carded for misbehaving go. Kind of like detention, I guess. But I’ll talk about that in a bit. I live with my father, stepmother, and her daughter, Audrina. I have a twin brother, too. But…well, he’s sick. So he hasn’t been with us for about a year now. He has a virus that doesn’t usually affect people in Castle Hayne. Only outcasts usually get sick. Those are the people who live in the Dim Cities outside of the Great Wall.

2. What is it like growing up in Castle Hayne? What do you like most and least about the city?Castle Hayne is probably the strangest city you’ll ever travel to. There are no birds. The beaches are covered in soot. The oceans have a dark red tint to the water. The clouds are mostly gray all the time. Our governing body, the Tribunal, has these robotic spies that look like crows. They’re always watching and waiting to see us screw up, I guess. There’s a 50-foot fence that surrounds the city. We call it the Great Wall. Every day and night I have to take this medicine to help keep my immune system strong enough to fight off viruses. It’s called the ale-meds. I hate that medicine. Micah hated taking it too.

3. The Tribunal, the governing body, assigns kids to different tasks once they are 15. How many different classes are there and what are their specialties? In Castle Hayne, kids have jobs. Yep, that’s right. We work. It’s a way the leaders make sure we can contribute to society when we turn eighteen. We have to earn our keep, be the model citizens. You see, there’s people that live outside the Great Wall surrounding our city. They don’t have special gifts like those of us who live inside the city. Most of them are infected, dying, mutilated. Those of us living inside the Great Wall have gifts.

There are five classes that match the five types of gifts. Common names for those groups are: ground soldiers, doctors, physical trainers, magicians, and teachers. Most of us are born with a gene enhanced by radiation. It has been passed down throughout the decades since the Tidal Years ended fifty-five years ago. By 16, we usually know which gene we’ve inherited. And then we’re recommended to the appropriate leader of each class.

4. Your city is rich in history and traditions such as the Falling Lights Festival. I found Costing Week to be the most intriguing and the most dangerous. Can you explain to our readers what it is and why it is so important? Yeah, sure. Costing week is a time when families from all eight of Corunum’s Hill Boroughs come to have a chance to be entered into a lottery. Good deeds mean more points, more chances to win extra food, medicine, traveling privileges, protection from the Beast, you name it. You can earn five slots, or five entries. On the fifth day, names are drawn and the winners of the various prizes are identified.

For kids outside of the city, it means competing in a brutal competition for one slot on their scorecard. They get one chance to change their lives by winning citizenship in Castle Hayne. The first day of costing week always begins with a showdown between Castle Hayne’s champion and his/her challenger. This year’s challenger was me. I’m so glad it’s over. But at the same time, I’m happy that it happened too.

Now that we have the background questions out of the way, let’s talk boys.

5. Seth and Faris, night and day. Tell me how you could even decide? Well, um, hm. They are the poster boys for opposites, right? Until my brother got sick, I never thought I’d care about anyone, least of all another guy. With my other half being gone, my twin brother, Micah, I felt like only part of me had been living. Enter Faris, the boy who appeals to my girl-with-the-flipping-stomach side. And then there’s Seth, the guy who I never saw coming. The one who makes me feel powerful. But in the end, I know I’ll make the right decision. I hope I do, anyway.

6. What is it like to be bonded with Faris? In a few letters…asdfghkl;!!! No, but seriously, I don’t want to go all puppy-girl in the interview here. The bond thing is amazing. It’s incredible to be tied with someone who can understand how I feel inside without me saying a word. Somebody who’s odd like me. Someone who can protect me from this storm called life.

7. I had a sneaking suspicion that your BFF, Jalen, wanted to be more than just friends. Could you ever see yourself falling for him? Jalen is like a big brother to me. I know, I know. I hear you saying that’s what all girls say about the good guy hiding his huge crush. Things are already pretty complicated, you know. I think it would ruin our friendship if we tried to go there. Only time will tell. And time is like a Ferris wheel. You never know where it’ll stop, or which couple will get to hop off first.

8. Why did you decide to take Jalen to your secret spot you shared with Faris? Well, partly because he kind of already knew about it. Mostly I think it was because I didn’t want to go back there alone. I had to go back, though. To remember that what I saw was real. I wanted somebody I cared about to share it with me. It couldn’t be Micah, so it had to be Jalen.

9. If you can, can you give us a tiny hint about what adventures and/or trouble you will be getting into in the next book? Will there still be a steamy…man triangle? Sure, I can give you a few hints. Wanna know what’s even better than that? You’ll get the chance to hear from Faris more often. I’ll be anxious to make up for lost time with my brother. He’s still recovering, but the doctors think he’ll be fine once he gets his strength back up. I can tell you all one exciting thing, though. I will be traveling to Cairona in what used to be old Egypt. I get to learn more about my mother’s history. But we have to be careful. The Tribunal suspects something is odd about me. They think there has to be something supernatural going on with us. That’s a very bad thing. It’s going to be a huge problem in book 2. As for the steamy triangle, or maybe even quadrangle…lol, you’ll have to come see for yourself. :-D

10. Lastly, what side do you think you will chose? Or are you any closer to making a decision? I don’t know. It’s hard to say. I know that probably sounds awful, but I’m just being real. I have this power now. It’ll get stronger by the time I turn 17. It scares me. Not because I’m afraid of it, but I like how it makes me feel. I guess I’m a bit confused.

KaSonndra Leigh was born in Charlotte, North Carolina. She now lives in the City of Alchemy and Medicine, North Carolina. Her two sons, aka the X-Men, have made her promise to write a boy book next.

She holds the MFA in creative writing, and loves to play CLUE, Monopoly (the Indiana Jones version), and Pandora's Box (good writer's block therapy). She lives in an L-shaped house with a garden dedicated to her grandmother. It has a secret library complete with fairies, Venetian plastered walls, and a desk made out of clear blue glass.

Giveaway:

KaSonndra will give a winner one autographed paperback copy of When Copper Suns Fall. This giveaway ends at midnight on November 27th and is open to residents of the U.S. only.